Leeds United secured a third consecutive clean sheet on Wednesday and with Joe Rodon’s red card, it ends up being a decent result – Ethan Ampadu summed it up, and showed why he is captain material.
Leeds had the chances to win the match – at least, up until the 60th minute. Georginio Rutter missed an early one-on-one, while Crysencio Summerville’s gorgeous strike was incredibly tipped wide of the post.
But when the red came – which was harsh, given the first yellow card picked up by Rodon was never a booking – it was a case of keeping a clean sheet. Being smart, winding the clock down. Very solid point.
Ampadu was pivotal to that, playing every single minute of the Championship season so far. Exceptional, given he took a right whack late on against Millwall. He spoke to LUTV after the match, about the draw.
“You can’t lose the game if you keep clean sheets. That is the baseline and what we pride ourselves on. We’re happy with a point, when you can’t go and win a game, you have to make sure you don’t lose it.”
Post-match comments shows Ampadu can wear Leeds armband
The £7m signing has shown in that sentence alone, he can wear the armband. As things stand, Liam Cooper is skipper and Luke Ayling is vice captain. Behind them, Pascal Struijk. But a decision is needed.
Cooper and Ayling are out of contract come next June. So, Daniel Farke needs to either offer some new deals to either Cooper, Ayling or both and save himself a choice. Or, he has to pick himself a captain.
Struijk is more than adept, but promotion to the Premier League might see Leeds bring in a new centre-back. Ampadu is already crucial to this side and his comments show he can easily go and captain Leeds.
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